November 12, 2018 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
November 12, 2018 — The following was released by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council:
November 9, 2018 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Fisheries Management Council:
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Herring Management Board members from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts set effort control measures for the Area 1A (inshore Gulf of Maine) fishery via Days Out meetings/calls.
The Atlantic Herring Board members from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts are scheduled to convene via conference call to review fishing effort on:
• Tuesday, November 13th at 10:30 AM
To join the call, please dial 888.585.9008 and enter conference room number 502-884-672 as prompted.
Please contact Megan Ware, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at mware@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740 for more information.
November 9, 2018 — Wellfleet, Mass. – Cape Cod National Seashore Superintendent Brian Carlstrom invites the public to attend an information session on sharks, seals, and public safety on Wednesday, Nov. 14.
The meeting will take place at the Nauset Regional Middle School auditorium in Orleans, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The event will consist of speaker presentations followed by an expert-panel question and answer session.
November 9, 2018 — The European Commission has proposed new 2019 quotas for 89 separate stocks in the east Atlantic and North Sea.
The new quotas will see total allowable catch (TAC) increased or maintained for 62 stocks, while 22 stocks have seen a decrease in TAC — five of which have a proposed TAC of zero, indicating that the reduced stocks should no longer be targeted at all.
Some of the biggest quota gains belonged to North Atlantic haddock, which had a proposed TAC of 10,469 metric tons, up 103% from 2018; horse mackerel off the west coast of Spain, with a proposed quota of 94,017t, up 69%; and Norwegian lobster west of Sweden, up 65% to a new TAC of 19,424t.
November 9, 2018 — On Election Day, Nov. 6, Alaska voted on Ballot Measure 1, the Stand for Salmon habitat protection initiative.
Early polls showed the initiative polling well within margins, but voters struck down the measure 2-to-1.
“Everything I heard from our polling before the election was that we were within margins and it was extremely close,” said Lindsay Bloom, who consulted with Stand for Salmon and helped write the original proposal that evolved into the ballot measure. “The results frankly, from my perspective, were shocking.”
November 9, 2018 — In 2018, the southern resident killer whale population in the Pacific Northwest’s Salish Sea was at its lowest ever. The world watched in September as an orca named Scarlet, or J50, wasted away and died, leaving just 74 of her kind left. Some wondered if this was “What extinction looks like.”
Meanwhile, endangered mountain gorillas in Africa hit a milestone in the opposite direction. Their population climbed to more than 1,000—the highest in nearly a century.
Building on work begun by primatologist Dian Fossey of Gorillas in the Mist fame, Gorilla Doctors, a program led by the University of California, Davis, has been providing personalized veterinary care to these animals in the wild since the late 2000s. The gorillas have their own long-term health records, and the international team of veterinarians that observe and treat them know each one as they would their own family members and friends—down to the individual.
November 9, 2018 — HYANNIS, Mass. – NOAA Fisheries researchers are helping to inform federal managers and developers on the impacts that construction and operation of offshore wind facilities will have on ocean bottom habitats and fisheries.
The Northeast Fisheries Science Center conducted four years of research to build a database of information, including water temperatures, topography, sediments, currents and marine life in the eight Wind Energy Areas authorized by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management along the East Coast.
The designated WEAs encompass just over 4,000 square nautical miles of seafloor from Massachusetts to North Carolina. About 40 percent of the area has actually been leased to date, including the Vineyard Wind project development south of Martha’s Vineyard.
November 9, 2018 — The first environmental impact assessment for a major offshore wind energy project in federal waters got underway this week.
The South Fork Wind Farm, Deepwater Wind’s plan for 15 turbines east of Montauk, N.Y., was the subject at a round of scoping meetings held in Long Island and southern New England by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
It is the first step in developing an environmental impact statement for what will be the second commercial East Coast wind project, following Deepwater’s Block Island Wind Farm, the five-turbine demonstration project that came in line in Rhode Island in late 2016.
November 9, 2018 — Gov. Roy Cooper is calling for federal help for North Carolina’s commercial and recreational fisheries impacted by Hurricane Florence in September.
In a letter to Secretary Wilbur Ross, Cooper asked the U.S. Department of Commerce to declare a federal fishery resources disaster, because of the damage caused by Hurricane Florence. Declaring a federal fishery resource disaster can assist with long-term relief for families that rely on recreational and commercial fisheries.